Yellow Arrow is excited to announce the theme for our next issue
ELEVATE lets women-identifying creatives be themselves by exploring and embracing their voices within its pages. With this issue, we want our authors to reach higher — move forward — live proudly. Guest editor, Jennifer N. Shannon contemplates about her voice by reflecting on The Color Purple:
“I am proud of my becoming, as a mother and writer and friend and daughter and partner. I am also excited about the honesty I am searching for even when it’s scary. The Color Purple did that. The latest version of this masterpiece still does that for me. It makes me want to be brave, live in my truth, evolve into who I will become, and share my voice as loudly as I can. It makes me want to help other women do the same, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to do just that, with my curatorial work and with Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. IX, No. 1.”
Photo by Danese Kenon
Jennifer N. Shannon has self-published three books: Silent Teardrops, for the LOVE, short stories and poems, vol. 1, and for the LOVE, short stories and poems, vol. 2. Her poetry, short stories, photographs, and essays have been in lit magazines such as North Dakota Quarterly, Yellow Arrow Journal, Deep South Magazine, Auburn Avenue, and others. In 2022, she curated the six-month artist exhibition “Black Joy Is My Protest,” which featured 12 artists from across the country and was showcased at Busboys and Poets in Baltimore. Jennifer was also a 2022 Baker Artist Awards finalist, a poetry fellow at The Watering Hole, and in 2023, she was selected as a Maryland State Arts Council Triennial Artist for Literary Arts. Jennifer is a proud South Carolinian and Gamecock who now lives in Maryland with her son and partner. Visit Jennifer’s website jennifernshannon.com or follow her @writerjns on Instagram and Facebook. Jennifer previously served on the Yellow Arrow board as marketing director and her poem “We Smile” was included in Yellow Arrow Journal RENASCENCE (Vol. VI, No. 1).
To learn more about our submissions guidelines, visit yellowarrowpublishing.com/submissions. Thank you for supporting independent publishing.